Boscia Mask

Over the years, I’ve grown tired of applying a mask and having to rinse my face over and over to get it off so I was really interested in trying a peel off mask. I really love the fact that I can just peel this mask off my face. Whoever came up with this idea is a godsend. That being said, I don’t see many other benefits of this mask besides the fact that it’s so easy to remove because I can peel it off. The peeling process itself is not as painful as some of the “black mask peel off” Youtube videos would have you think, especially if you follow the directions on the packaging. However, you do need to keep the mask away from your hairline and/or facial hair (peach fuzz) because you don’t want to cause yourself any unnecessary pain. You also need to keep the mask away from your eyes. The directions say not to apply the mask above your orbital bone and take my advice on this… DO NOT APPLY ABOVE YOUR ORBITAL BONE! You want to apply the mask on your cheeks and nose but if you get too close to your eyes, your eyes will sting and start to water. I kind of feel like I’m wasting product when I’m applying the mask because you have to use enough to get an opaque layer on your face but you can’t just rub it all on like you would a normal mask since you have to be careful where it goes. A brush of some sort would be better for application purposes. And like I said, I don’t see a real benefit of the mask that justifies the $34 price tag.

Luna Sleeping Oil & Farsali Rose Gold Elixir

Both of these oils are amazing. They are extremely moisturizing without leaving you with that greasy feeling. The Rose Gold Elixir is a little oilier than the Luna oil though. They are both very easy to apply and all you need is three drops of oil to get the job done. They are both about $55 which is considered expensive (to me) but since you don’t need much, it makes me feel better about spending that much money. Obviously the Luna Sleeping Oil is to be used at night, whereas the Rose Gold Elixir can be used in the morning and at night. I use the Rose Gold Elixir in the morning and the Luna oil at night right now. But if I were to travel, I would only bring the Rose Gold Elixir since I can use it twice a day.

I will definitely buy the Farsali Rose Gold Elixir and the Luna Sleeping Oil again. I will keep buying peel off masks but I may keep shopping around before I settle on one. I have the PÜR Blue Agave mask on my list of things to try. Maybe I’ll see more benefits from that one.

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Wedding planning can be very stressful for some brides but the level of stress can reach a climax during the actual weekend that the wedding is to take place. As I approach my two month anniversary, I would like to give brides seven tips that I feel are essential and will help you get through one of the most important days of your life.

People will call you to say they aren’t coming and/or may tell you that they are bringing an extra person that you weren’t expecting.

Try not to let the news affect your mood one way or another. If someone says they won’t be able to make it, let them know that they’ll be missed and move along. If someone surprises you with an extra guest that they are bringing, try not to freak out. Just smile and say something along the lines of “that’s great.” At this point it’s probably too late to adjust seating anyway, so just don’t worry about it. Let your wedding coordinator and/or venue handle this one.Both of these things happened to me the day before my wedding and while everyone was freaking out around me (parents, husband, etc.), I just had to tell myself that it’s not my problem. I knew I had an amazing wedding coordinator and that she and her staff would be able to handle such issues.

There will be no shows.

The open seats we had at our wedding were mostly people that had gotten in touch with us the day prior to our wedding to let us know that they wouldn’t be attending. But we did have a few who just no showed. Continue reading →

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I’ve been missing in action on the blog for a few months because I had been dealing with the last minute preparations for my wedding AND preparing for a job relocation with my new husband. So I’ve been very, very busy with some of the most important life events that I’ve ever experienced.

But I’m back now and I have loads of information to share…

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We are officially two months away from holy matrimony! Here’s what we have done so far:

Joint Bank Account

This has been the single task that we’ve done that made me go “oh shit, we’re getting married”. A lot of the other tasks thus far have felt like I’m just planning a party, but getting a joint bank account reminded me of the reason why we’ll be partying. We opted to keep our separate accounts open and we’ll have a portion of our paychecks deposited into our joint account on payday. A lot of people dread talking about money with their future spouse, but this was a very easy conversation to have for us.

Dresses/Fittings

My bridesmaids dresses actually came in today. I’m very excited to start shopping for their shoes and accessories. My attire for that day is complete now that I have my clutch bag. I’m still in the process of doing fittings, but I expect to be done with that this weekend. Now I’ll be able to focus on making sure my girls look amazing. Continue reading →

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My future in-laws came down from New Jersey. We opened presents at my apartment for the first time. I really enjoyed hosting the family so we might have to do this again. I received some very nice presents from my fiancé (Gucci Soho Disco bag) and my parents (Canon EOS Rebel T6).

I hope everyone’s holidays were as good as mine.

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I’m getting married in T minus 99 days! I feel like we’ve done so much in the planning process but we still have a lot more tasks remaining.

Invitations & RSVPs

I just sent my invitations out on Tuesday and people are already starting to receive them! I was so nervous that I did something wrong and they would be returned to sender or that they would get lost in the mail (sometimes I worry about silly things even when I KNOW I did something right). But luckily, we got a call yesterday about someone getting theirs already. Now the hard part is going to be compiling all the RSVPs and meal choices. I’m anxious to see how many people will RSVP “yes”.

Attire

I picked up my dress back in November and had my first fitting earlier this month. I have another fitting in mid-January and if everything looks good, I should be able to take the dress home. I have my veil, jewelry, and shoes for that day but I’m still looking for a clutch bag to have at the reception. I’m ready for the bridesmaids’ dresses to come in so the girls can start getting their accessories. My fiancé has already decided on the guys’ attire, now they just have to order the tuxes. And I still need to buy his wedding band. Continue reading →

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A huge part of planning a wedding is choosing your vendors. You have to be sure that you pick professionals that you can trust to get the job done and that you can have a pleasant experience with. I can imagine that there’s nothing worse than picking a DJ, photographer, or florist and having them disappoint you with their work on your special day or butting heads the entire time you have to deal with them. So I’ve come up with a list of five things that can help you and your vendors throughout the wedding planning process. Continue reading →

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The Knot and Wedding Wire are the two most popular wedding websites/apps that I know of. I had previously only used The Knot because it was the website that I discovered first and both sites pretty much do the same thing. So I never felt like I needed to use both sites. A couple of weeks ago, I got curious about what Wedding Wire has to offer and which site is better so I started using both sites simultaneously. Here’s what I discovered:

Checklist

The checklist on The Knot’s website is easier on the eyes. The Knot breaks down tasks in terms of “remaining”, “essentials”, and “completed”. All of those terms are self-explanatory so it’s very easy for the user to navigate. You can also see how far along you are in the planning process by percentage. Personally, I love this feature because I am the type of person who likes to check things off my list and seeing that I’ve accomplished 50% of the tasks makes me happy.

Wedding Wire’s checklist is a little more basic as far as style goes. It doesn’t have the percentage feature that The Knot has, but it does show you how many tasks you’ve done and how many more you have to do. I just prefer seeing that in a percentage form. Wedding Wire does allow you to do things to your checklist. You cannot do that on The Knot so if you have more unique things on your to-do list, Wedding Wire’s checklist may be best for you. Continue reading →

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Over the weekend, I did some research on wedding etiquette. And I was a little shocked to find out that some things that I have seen other people and/or was considering doing are deemed poor etiquette. I figured I would share this information because a lot of brides are doing the wedding planning thing for the very first time so most etiquette mistakes are made because the bride didn’t know better, not because she was trying to be rude.

Unplugged ceremonies

I’ll admit that this was something that I was seriously considering doing at my ceremony. I thought the cute little signs about being present and putting the phones away until the reception were cute. But apparently, they are extremely passive aggressive and snooty. It’s a wedding, not a classroom. So your guests shouldn’t feel like they are being treated like children. That being said, this trend of “unplugging” has risen due to brides (and grooms) “need” to say something that they shouldn’t have to say. If that makes sense…

Specifying the Attire

Even though you may want to give people a reminder of the suggested attire for your event, it’s rude to do so for two reasons. Continue reading →

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Here is yet another recipe that I found on Pinterest. I like pasta, I like asparagus and I’m okay with lemons, so I figured I would try it. I did make one kind of big mistake though. I must have glossed over the part where the recipe said that the chicken would need to be grilled prior to making this dish. I don’t have a grill or a grill pan (but they are on my wedding registry) so I just through the chicken in a regular pan and cooked it. So I’m pretty sure that this meal would’ve tasted ten times better if I had actually grilled the chicken first. Other than that minor issue, the recipe was very easy to make. And it lasted for a very long time. My fiancé went out of town for a work trip and I literally had 1 ½ weeks’ worth of food. Also, one serving of this recipe is less than 400 calories. I’m counting calories now (can’t eat more than 1200 a day) so that’s really important to me nowadays.